Machine for cleaning vegetable fiber.



PATENTED. DEC. 8, 1903.

I T FINIGANL MAGHINE FOR CLEANING VEGETABLE FIBER. APPLICATION FILED 00T.16. 1902. no MODEL. 4 SHEETS-SHEET 1 WITNESSES: [Ni EA/TOR. I wh ATTORNEY.

, PATENTED DEC. 8, 1903.

T. IINIGAN. MACHINE FOR CLEANING VEGETABLE FIBER.

APPLICATION FILED 0OT.16, 1902.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

N0 MODEL.

I 5V 5 Z AYTTORNEY.

PATENTED DEC. 8, 1903. T. EINIGAN. MACHINE FUR CLEANING VEGETABLE FIBER.

APPLICATION FILED OUT. 16, 1902.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3' H0 MODEL.

INVENTOR.

BY ATTORNEY.

jVlg/ESSES PATENTED DEC; 8, 1903. T. FINIGAN. 4 MACHINE EOE CLEANING VEGETABLE FIBER.

APPLICATION E'ILED OOT. 1-6, 1902. v

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4,

N0 MODEL.

7 INVENTOR."

' WITNESSES} .vaM A I Y Y B ATTORNEY.

3 is a top plan view of the machine.

UNITED STATES Patented December s, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE;

MACHINE FoR CLEANING VEGETABLEIFIBER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 746,056, dated December 8, 1903-.

Application filed October 16. 1902. Serial No. 127.530. (No model.)

To all whom it mag concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS FINIGAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Paterson, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Cleaning Vegetable Fiber, of which the following is a specification, ref erence being had therein to the accompanying drawings. i

In the drawings, Figure 1 is afront elevation of my fiber-cleaning machine, showing where .theleaf enters. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the opposite side of the machine. Fig. Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view of a portion of the shoe, showing thestationary' guide-race secured thereto and inclined lip of the guide entering a slot in the grip-wheel between two bands of teeth constituting the gripping device. Fig. 5 is a vertical side elevation'in section, showing the relativeposition of scutching-wheel, gripping 'device, and guide-shoe with a triangular deflected portion. Fig. 6

'is a sectional view of an auxiliary cleaning wheel and shoe and fiber-gripping device. Figs. 7, 8'are different views of knife-blades or guillotine and eccentric that operates the blades for cutting fiber off close to the butt.-

Fig. 9 is an illustration of the leaf as it comes from'my machine after being operated upon, with theexception that the butt 2 has not in this figure been cut from'the fiber 1.

This invention relates, generally speaking,

' to machines which are intended for removing the pulp from the fibers of plants ofvarious kinds for the purpose of separatingthe cellular tissue and other matter from the fibers and cleaning lhe said fibers. Many complicated machines have been constructed for that purpose which because of their numerous parts have been both expensiveand dii'1' i-- cult to transport from, place to place'as well as cumbersome. They have also "required considerable power to drive them and have embodied in their construction systems of gears and chains that required much attention on the part of the operator and have required more than one operation to remove the cellular tissue and other substances from the fibers in the plant or leaf.

The object of my invention is to provide a more simple and inexpensive machine em B of the wheel 13.

bodying various improvements which will obviate the necessity of employing chains and complicated systems of gearing and which will accomplish the purpose in one operation.

My machine consists of a large cleaningwheel B, mounted in a frame,A A, driven by suitable power and coacting with a shoe shoe each succeeding blade strikes the leaf higher and higher until the leaf reaches that part of the shoe where a true circle is formed to aline with the disk of the wheel B, whereupon the blades of the revolving wheel B scrape successively the whole leaf, except the v extreme butt or portion, which is held in the grip of the wheelD and the stationary race H. The leaf is fed in by the buttl2 between the teeth D of the wheel 1) and the inclined ,mouth or entrance to the race H at the point indicated by the arrow at thetop of Fig. 3, where the said teeth engage the upper side of the leaf and carry it along the stationary race H, which is provided with a lip or shoulder H, that extends into an annular groove I D? in the toothed surfaceof the wheel D, until it reaches a small vertical wheel K and friction hub or roller K, which is'driven by friction from the toothed wheel D, where it is bent down, and caused to conform to and en-- ter the entrance to the shoe 0, which is open to receive it on its upper part nearly two- "thirds of its Width at its upper portion, but i not at the point or'lower part wherethe leaf is, first caught and acted upon by the blades The-lip H on the stationary race H is arranged to rise up gradually to interlock inthe annular 'grooveforined i-n-the under side of the toothed wheel D and obtains its highest point where the whole surface of the'leaf is being scraped by the blades of the wheel B. It is thus obvious that the whole of the leaf is operated uponwi'thou't drawing out or damaging the short fibers of the leaf.

IOC

4 The flutes in the face of the shoe are intended to save a great amount of labor in cleaning the thick part or butt, as a part of the fibrous leaf will sink into the grooves C and then rise out and over the ribs C and be scraped, thus tending to stop the rolling motion of the fibers that are being scraped and prevent the curl which is produced in the fibers when dried by such a rolling motion.

By the time the whole leaf has been acted upon between the wheel B and the shoe 0 a bunch of cleaned fibers 1, depending from the short butt 2, makes its exit, and the fibers are caught by rope R at a point where the toothed wheel D and the race H let the butt 2 go, that being the point where the race H ends, and an idle sheave in contact with the rope It causes the "hers to be drawn through or between another small cleaning-wheel F and a shoe F, which scrapes off the pulp adhering to the butt 2, where itwas previously held in the grip. After leaving said last-mentioned small wheel and shoe the fibers, entirely cleaned, are conveyed to a point where the rope R and idle sheave part company, as in; dicated by arrow and are delivered and caught by the hand or in any suitable manner, as desired.

As only a small portion of the bu at of the leaf is required to be held in the grip-namely, about one inch-my machine may be simplified, if desired, by dispensing with the small clean wheel and shoe, and instead of cleaning the butt of the leaf it and the fibers depending therefrom may be conveyed from the cleaning-wheel D to a knife (shown in Fig. 8) which severe the short butt D from the cleaned fiber 1. Said knife is driven by an eccentric on the shaft driving the toothed feed-wheeland is loca ted-in close proximity to the rim of the feedavheel, so that the fiber will be cut off close to the grip, leaving unutilized only the small butt of the leaf.

Fig. 8 shows the eccen tric L on the horizontal shaft T and its strip L, secured by pivot L to the rocking arm M, which works on the pivot M and is provided with the upper blade m, which, with the lower fixed blade m, secured by screws hi or in any other suitable manner, constitute the knife or guillotine.

The horizontal shaft T operates the wormwheels and is driven by the spiral gear-wheels T and T the worm '1" operating the wheel E and the worm T operating the worm-whee1T WV is the vertical shaft of the wheelD and is supported in bearings XV and'W secured to the lower and upper portion of the machineframe A and A, respectively.

'lhe-triangular deflected portion 0 of the surface of the shoe 0 is indicated by the angles a b 0, formed by said deflection. If the shoe C did not have what Lcall the triangular portion of its surface deflected, it would consist of an oblong metallic plate curved, so that its upper surface would be concentric or almost concentric with the circumference of the scutching-wheel, and the knives. or blades across the perimeter of the scutching-wheel in the revolution of the wheel would sweep over the said shoe from the top to the bottom thereof and would begin to operate at the top of the shoe on any fibrous plant or leaf which would be inserted between the shoe and the wheel. This result I wish to avoid and I do so by bending the upper left-hand corner of the oblong plate on the line a I), thus deflect ing the triangular portion a b 0, so that the knives in passing the curved shoe will begin to operate on the fibrous plant or leaf which is passing between the shoe and the wheel at the lower portion of the leaf or below the angle b, the fibrous plant or leaf being carried over the shoe from left to right (see Fig. 4) each succeeding knife will operate thereon at a higher point as the plant or leaf passes from the deflected triangular portion beyond the diagonal line a b or terminallimit of said deflected portion. This obviates the collection of pulp,which would accumulate if the knives began to operate upon the upper portion of the plant or leaf. The shoe is secured to the frame and adjusted by the boltsfand f and adjusted nut and screw (3 and O which may be manipulated to fix the shoe in the desired position with relation to the wheel B and the blades thereon. Power may be communicated to the shaft of the scutchiug-wheel B through belting and the usual set of fast and loose pulleys B or in any other well-known or suitable manner.

Owing to the great speed of the revolution of the scutching-wheel the bagasse scraped from the fibers would fly, and to prevent this I provide the cover or fender B A presssure-roller N is forced down by the spiral spring S to tighten the grip of the wheel D over the stationary race H at the working portion of the grip. The race H is secured to the shoe 0 by the bolts H (See Fig. 7.)

The endless rope R passes around the sheaves n and n and in contact with the sheave n, and said sheave n is operated from the horizontal shaft T.

It is obvious that many modifications may be made in the construction of my machine without departing from the broad principles and, the essential spirit of my invention.

With this description of my invention what I claim as new, and desire to secure'bv Letters Patent, is

1. In a fiber-cleaning machine, the combination of a scraping wheel having blades mounted upon the periphery thereof. with a cleaning-shoe constructed so as to present a concave surface narrow at the top and gradually widening toward tne bottom and concentric with said wheel, substantially as set forth.

2. In a fiber-cleaning machine, a scUtching-wheel, having blades mounted upon its periphery and a shoe having a concave surface c'oncentric with said wheel and downwardly increasing in width, in combination. with a horizontal wheel or disk having underncath serrations or teeth and a groove, a stationary guide having a projection on its upper surface adapted to enter said groove, means for guiding 'a leaf laterally between the shoe and the scutching-wheel and means forgiving a downward pressure to said horizontal wheel or disk, substantially as set forth.

In a fiber-cleaning machine, a leaf-conveying device consisting of an upper moving disk and a lower stationary smooth race or guide upon which the fibrous leaf may slide and yet be firmly gripped, said disk on its under side' at its periphery having narrow annular bands of serrations r teeth, and a groove or recess sunk between said bands of teeth, the guide or race beingprovided with set forth.

a raised l'ip partly entering said groove for the purposes of interlocking the end of the leaf in said teeth, tially ass'pecified.

4. In a fiber-cleaning machine, the combination of a cleaning and vided with straight blades, with a revolving horizontal wheel, a groove formed in the ungroove and lip, substander side of said Wheel and a series of serra-i tions or teeth'located on each side of .said groove, and a cleaning-shoe having a raceway on its upper edge formed to interlock and operate in said groove, substantially as 5. In a fiber-cleaning machine, the frame, anda scutching-wheel, in combination with a cleaning-shoe having a concave surface 3 5 whichis narrow at its upper edge and gradually increases in width from, the top until it is the full width of the shoe and alines with the periphery of said scutchin'g-wheel, a triangular space, or portion'on the. face of said shoe situated to one side of a suppositionary line drawn from a point a'short distance from one side of the upper edge of the shoe to a point on the other side and near the lower edge of the shoe being bent or curved out of alinement with said sc'utching-wheel to permit a leaf to readily pass between said wheel and said shoe, and to permit the leaf to be struck. or scraped progressively, at points along the said suppositionary line, as the leaf crosses said line in passing over the surface of the shoe, substantially as set forth 6. A- cleaning-shoe for a fiber-cleaning machine, having, a concavesurface crossing-diagonally from one side to the other and adapted to be located concentrically with relation to the periphery of a cleaning or scrapscraping wheel proing wheel, and having a portion bent away at an angle from said concave surface, in

and forming 9. JS'he combination of the scu-tching-Wheel,

provided with blades secured to the periphery thereof and parallel shoe having a portionof its upper surface defiected out of parallel, and not concentric, with the periphery of the scutching-wheel, substantially asset forth. I

10. The combination of thescutching-wheel,

provided with straight-edged blades secured axis, with a fixed shoe having a triangular portion of its surface deflected out of parallel, and not concentric, with the periphery of the scutching-wheel, and means for conveying a fibrous leaf between said scutchingewheel and shoeso that the lower end or point of the leaf is first acted upon by the blades of the scutching-Wheel as the leaf is conveyed between said wheel and shoe, substantially as set forth;

11. In a fiber-cleaning machine, the combination with the scutchin'g-wheel having blades on its periphery parallel with its axis, of a shoe having a triangular portion; of its surface deflected, a a stationary guide-race secured to and forming a part of the guide or shoe and a horizontal grip-wheel provided with an annular slot having a band of serrations or teeth on each side thereof, a projection on said stationary guide-race adapted to enter said slot to interlock therewithand' firmly grip the butt-end of a fibrous leaf, and a means for cutting the fiber off close to theportion gripped, substantially as set forth.

' In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in. presence of witnesses.

, THOMAS FINIGAN. Witnessesz, 1

RICHARD A. HEALY, JOHN F. KERR.

with its axis, of a fixed grip device consisting of to the periphery thereof and parallel with its 

